Beginning this Thursday, owners of iOS devices — iPhone, iPad, iPod touch — will be able to view Flash video on the devices from which Apple CEO Steve Jobs has so vociferously banned Adobe's much maligned media-enabling software.
No, Jobs did not have a change of heart. And yes, there's a catch — a number of catches, to be exact …

"Jobs' Flashturbatory machinations"

RE: VLC

@petur, don't believe the hype

Firstly, Apple doesn't violate anything. It has been granted the licence to distribute VLC in exactly the manner it does. The question is whether the VLC developer who granted Apple that licence violated the GPL by doing so. Apple explicitly aren't implicated.

Secondly, there isn't agreement amongst the other VLC developers that distributing VLC via the app store is contrary to the licence. See http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2010-November/077457.html — "tl;dr version: lawyers are boring, FSF is FUDing, AppStore terms have changed, answer is not simple."

maybe

Who cares?

Flash is not indispensable, and should never be allowed to become so. It allows a single company to become a gate-keeper for Internet content, i.e. if Adobe fails to deliver, you have nowhere else to turn. [And please don't point out open source efforts in this respect - they will never deliver 100% conformance, just as no 3rd party can deliver 100% compatibility with MS office]

The counter argument would be

That rather than allow Adobe to hold the title, Apple have decided they'll be technology gatekeepers instead. In terms of attempted control I don't see either as better than the other — the real story being that the whole market is benefitting from the clash of the gatekeepers.

"Internet Gatekeepers", not "App Store Gatekeepers"

My concern is that Adobe become *Internet* gatekeepers through Flash. As far as I can tell, Apple makes no effort to restrict Internet content. Mobile Safari does a pretty good job of rendering all standards-based content.

Apple's quality control over App submission is an entirely different subject to my mind. The Internet is a public, open domain, but App development for iOS devices is not. Apple designed and maintains the App Store, so it's entirely Apple's business how it decides to manage it.

hahaha

Ironic

Is it just me that finds it ironic that "Ralph 5" is concerned about Adobe controlling "teh internets" but is presumably happy for Steve the messiah to totally control his (doubtlessly numerous) Apple devices ?